The prevention or amelioration of the effects of aging on facial skin is a major focus of the health and beauty industry. In addition to the ubiquitous beauty creams and other topical skin treatment compounds, a number of other treatments attempt to address underlying causes of wrinkling and loss of skin tone such as abnormal facial muscle tone, facial nerve anomalies, and disrupted circulation in the facial circulatory vessels. Less invasive treatments to address these underlying causes include cosmetic acupuncture and facial toning treatments such as active exercising of the facial muscles or passive exercise of the facial muscles using electrostimulation of the facial muscles. However, due to the lack of standardization of the administration of these less invasive treatments, and the limited ability to assess the efficacy of these treatments, patients may opt for more invasive treatments that yield more dramatic and immediate results.
Invasive cosmetic procedures such as the injection of botulinum toxin (BOTOX®) into facial muscles as well as surgical procedures such as brow lifts, eyelid lifts, face lifts, and collagen injections, are accompanied by a significant risk inherent in any surgical procedure or injection of a foreign substance. In addition, the effects of these invasive cosmetic procedures, for better or worse, are typically not easily reversed, may be temporary, and may lead to long-term degradation of the facial tissues.
A need exists for a system and method of non-invasively treating facial tissues such as muscular, nervous, and circulatory tissues in a standardized manner using standardized diagnostic criteria. In addition, a need exists for a system and method of assessing the efficacy of a facial tissue treatment in a standardized and non-biased manner. Such a system and method would overcome many of the current limitations of non-invasive facial treatment methods such as facial toning, and make possible a safe and effective alternative to the invasive cosmetic surgery methods commonly used to ameliorate the effects of aging on the facial tissues.